Migrant Justice's historical delegation to Florida's Coalition of Immokalee Workers: Building A Vision for "El Nuevo Dia"--the new day of farmworker dignity and rights

"I was honored to travel to Florida and went with a commitment to bring back ideas to my community. There are many ideas to spread through VT like how the Coalition uses theater to educate, engage and recruit workers. The community is deeply united. They have their own community run food cooperative. There office walls are covered with photos and worker testimonies displaying achievements and victories that are the footprint that the community leaves behind!"-Victor Diaz, Migrant Justice farmworker leader reflecting on last weeks delegation to Florida.

Last week Migrant Justice's 7 person delegation, including farmworker leaders, staff, and allies, got an in-depth look inside the recipe for Florida's Coalition of Immokalee Worker's (CIW) success. Our mission was for our farmworker leaders to learn directly from CIW worker leaders about how they are building such a powerful movement to transform the lives of thousands of farmworkers in particular exploring how we could apply lessons learned to help build our Milk with Dignity Campaign. What we learned was much more than expected--the CIW is not an organization---it is a family, a community and a movement that is truly changing reality and steadily securing human rights together working towards "El Nuevo Dia"--the new day of dignity and rights for farmworkers.

After hearing about Ferguson's police murder of Michael Brown Migrant Justice farmworker organizer Kike Balcazar reflected, "As a young person of color and human being I feel both angry and threatened. When will this world recognize that we are human beings and that we are sisters and brothers?